This invention relates to a steering column arrangement for vehicles as well as occupant protection arrangements, safety steering features, and steering wheels using such steering column arrangements. The invention also relates to methods of producing steering column arrangements.
Steering column arrangements in vehicle construction are generally known and have numerous modifications. Such steering column arrangements are usually provided with a deformable structure so that in a frontal impact the steering column and steering wheel will not be moved toward an occupant. The deformations which occur in the front of the car during a frontal impact thus positively assure that the spacings between a first connection of the steering column with the steering wheel and between a second connection of the steering column with the steering mechanism will be compressed. Merely by way of example, reference is made in this context to U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,172. For occupant protection in vehicles, it is also known that steering columns of the type described above may be coupled to steering mechanisms by energy absorbing elements so that in event of an impact by the occupant on the steering apparatus during an accident, the risk of injury may be very much reduced. A typical arrangement is disclosed in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 195 08 443 A1.